Page 25 of The Focal Point

Tom sighed, then one corner of his mouth tilted into a sarcastic quirk. “Too bad you don’t have another house for her to decorate.”

I knew my best friend was joking, but the idea was like lightning. I sat up straight, feeling like I had been struck.

“No, no way.”

Tom had been my best friend for thirty years. He knew everything about me, and I knew as well as he did what the expression on my face meant.

“Liam, I was joking. Joking! Do not take my plan seriously. It was a joke—”

But I didn’t hear him—or chose not to. My mind was already turning wildly. I also ignored it when Tom groaned, burying his face in his hands.

He was still groaning when I dragged him to view a home the next day with a realtor.

“You can’t go through with this, Liam, seriously.” He had repeated the refrain since we had left the office. I had, of course, made the appointment only after an apology meeting with the employee who had borne the brunt of my frustration the day before.

“It’s a good plan,” I replied, nearly leaping from my car toward the waiting realtor. “If it wasn’t, why are you coming along?”

“To try to talk you out of it.” My best friend’s response was equal parts desperate and resigned. “This is the stupidest plan you’ve ever come up with, Liam. Seriously. Stop now while you’re ahead.”

I looked back at him over my shoulder. “I don’t see anything wrong with it. I buy this house and have her design the interior. She gets paid for another design project, and I get to spend more time with her. I don’t have a product launch this time to get in the way.”

The realtor’s eyebrows shot up at Tom’s groans, but I ignored him. I knew the plan would work. Especially when it turned out the house would need a lot of design work.

I bought it on the spot.

Tom shook his head as the realtor walked away, promising to send over the paperwork for me to sign before the day was over.

“This is a stupid idea, Liam, I’m warning you now.” He crossed his arms and stared at me until I glared back. “One or both of you will end up hurting with a broken heart.”

His words made it to my brain, but they stopped there. I knew this plan was going to work—it had to. The better I got to know Bailey, the more convinced I was that she was the one. How else could I explain my desperate need to be around her, to see her smile, to make her laugh? I had to try.

“It’s worth the risk,” I told him. “She’s worth the risk.”

And I knew it was the truth.

Chapter 10

Bailey

––––––––

“HANK, CAN YOU GRAB this?”

My burley employee nodded with a grunt and took the bookshelf from my hands.

“It’s awkward.” I laughed weakly as he hauled the bookshelf across the room as though it weighed as much as the vase that would grace its top. Never mind that I had been staggering under its weight just to get it across the room from the doorway. “Especially in heels.”

The only response I received from Hank was another grunt, and I scratched at the side of my head, wondering why I had said anything in the first place. The guy outweighed me by at least a hundred pounds, if not more. I had hired him to do precisely what he was doing now—move furniture, hang things, and do whatever else I couldn’t do alone. It had, in fact, been a triumph when I had enough work to hire an employee instead of relying on anyone I could find.

And yet, it still annoyed me when I couldn’t do things for myself.

“You need therapy.”

I turned my head toward Kristen, whose gaze was not on me but on Hank as he maneuvered another piece of furniture to the space I had indicated. Her eyes followed his movements and the way his muscles shifted under his black T-shirt.

“You realize he’s married, right?” I asked her under my breath.

The look she flashed told me she knew very well he was married, but there was no harm in looking and appreciating.